Opening Session: Set Your Learning in Motion

To open the conference in a high-energy way, join fellow participants as you warm up your creative and community-building muscles with a design circuit! The session will have participants starting the day doing rapid brainstorming, illustrating and networking focused on the theme of “learning together” and the topics to be explored throughout the conference. Come ready to talk openly with peers about how to create environments that support sharing and learning, as well as the obstacles grantmakers face. Head into the rest of the conference having made connections with colleagues who share similar interests and goals. The co-creative (but low-intensity and accessible) circuit exercises will demonstrate the importance of learning with others to generate ideas, uncover insights and build relationships that support better results. You won’t break a sweat but you just might have a breakthrough!

Primary Points Of Contact

Session Designers

Speakers

Zahra Ebrahim, archiTEXT

Speaker Biography

Zahra Ebrahim is a change driven, rule-bending creative, deeply invested in using design and design process to explore community engagement, institutional innovation, and participatory citybuilding. Her practice is notorious for bringing unlike people, institutions and industries together in an effort to improve both the human and the designed experience. As the Principal of the design think tank, archiTEXT, she has led innovation projects with some of Canada’s largest charities and governing bodies. For the past six years, she has taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and has been the co-lead on the Community. Design. Initiative., a legacy project engaging some of North America’s most marginalized youth in architecture and design. Zahra spent two years serving as Innovator in Residence at Canada’s National Design Museum, is the co-founder of the Design Walk-In, and a contributor to the Huffington Post. She is Chair of the board of Jane’s Walk, serves actively on the board of St. Stephen’s House, and is a visiting instructor at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Her work has been featured in Luminato, Come Up To My Room, Nuit Blanche, Toronto Design Offsite, TEDxTalks, as well as on CBC, The Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star. She was recently nominated as one of CBC’s 12 Young Leaders to Watch and included in Toronto Life’s 2014 issue of the “50 Most Influential People in the City”.

Sherry Lin, archiTEXT

Speaker Biography

Sherry first connected with archiTEXT at an Architecture for Humanity meeting. A few months later, after a tour of the What Has Architecture Done For You Lately exhibit, she fell in love with the work and people of archiTEXT. She originally came on board to help with the Community.Design.Initiative but soon her skills and passions expanded her reach to many other projects. A graduate of Ryerson University, Sherry has a Bachelor of Interior Design, a Certificate in Architecture and is also LEED certified. And just in case you thought she didn't have enough degrees, she also has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and is a Chartered Accountant. Her broad range of experiences, from Canada's largest public accounting firm to an exhibit design firm to an interior design firm, allows her to interface with a wide client base. In her spare time, Sherry has volunteered with various youth organizations including Junior Achievement and was recently nominated as Advisor of the Year by Junior Achievement. As a sustainable designer, the idea of creating housing sustainably prompted her to enter the 2010 IDSWest/AFH Vancouver PreFab 20/20 Competition. The concept behind this 400sf house was based on the modularity of LEGO blocks. Aside from being a lover of all things design, Sherry is a passionate foodie. Everything from books, to TV shows, to cooking, creating recipes and, of course, eating! Because of this last love, she is also an avid runner, having run her first half marathon last year (aiming to do one every year). She loves to blog about design, food and culture.

The Learning Conference 2015

June 10–11, 2015

Boston, Mass.